sensible, but all she could see was Carter. He had such warm hands. Such strong shoulders. Such worried eyes.
Such a kind heart.
Her face scrunched up, and her body began to shake.
“Oh, baby,” he said hoarsely. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against him so she could cry into his chest.
The second wave of crying only lasted a couple of minutes. Eventually she raised her head and tried to pull away. He didn’t let her. Kept his arm around her shoulders so she stayed close to him. They were both still sitting on the floor, which was kind of ridiculous.
“So what happened?” Carter asked softly.
“It was just a stupid car accident. I’m not even very hurt. It was nothing.”
“You don’t look like it was nothing.”
“I just got upset for some reason. A random breakdown. I’m really not that hurt.”
“What happened here?” He indicated the brace on her wrist.
“It’s just sprained. Nothing serious. I just need to wear this thing for a couple of weeks.”
“And you have a concussion, Kayla said?”
“Yeah. Not a bad one. A little bump on my head. The doctor wants to be careful, but he doesn’t seem worried about it. You really didn’t have to come.”
He was silent for a minute. It was a speaking silence. The tension of it vibrated in the air between them.
He wanted to give her a well-deserved lecture about not calling him right away. Ruth could sense it coming. Right on the tip of his tongue.
But he held it in. He adjusted his arm so he could stroke her hair back gently.
“But since you’re here,” she finally said, “maybe you could take me home and pick up Kayla so she can stay with me.”
“I’ll do that if you really want me to. I’d rather take you home with me.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I know I don’t need to. I said that’s what I want.”
“But Kayla can just—”
“When Kayla called me, she said I have to respect your wishes, so if you don’t want to come home with me, then I couldn’t insist on it. And she’s right of course. If you insist, I’ll take you and Kayla to your apartment. But why is coming home with me so bad?” The last question was asked with barely restrained wistfulness that went straight to Ruth’s heart.
“It’s not bad. It’s not that. It’s just...” She trailed off because it hit her anew how irrational she was being. There was absolutely no good reason to not go with Carter where she could be taken care of. Doing so would prevent her family from going through a lot of hassle to help her. The truth was she was afraid of it, but that wasn’t a good enough reason to keep saying no. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”
“I’m not trying to bully you into it if you really don’t want to be with me.”
Again, the slightly bewildered ache in his tone made her chest hurt. “That’s not it. I just don’t like being a burden on people. I’m used to taking care of myself.”
“You should know perfectly well you’re not a burden.” He sounded relieved. Like her words had eased some of his confusion. “Now if you think you can manage, maybe we can get off this gross floor.”
She burst into helpless giggles. And if they were dangerously close to tears, Carter didn’t mention it. He helped her up and got her back in a sitting position on the side of the bed. He gave her a couple of tissues so she could clean up her face, and then he went to look for a nurse so she could finally get her Tylenol.
It was better with him there.
So much better.
Maybe she shouldn’t let herself rely on him so much. Maybe she should have stuck with her convictions and insisted he take her home.
But the truth was she didn’t want to go home. She wanted to be with him.
IT WAS ALMOST TWO HOURS before Carter was finally turning in to the driveway of his house and parking right in front of the door.
Ruth’s headache had gotten a little better, and she wasn’t so upset about everything, but on the short drive there, she’d gotten so tired she was almost asleep.
Maybe she was asleep. She was only barely aware of Carter parking the car, unhooking his seat belt, and getting out. Her head lolled to one side as she told herself to get moving. She didn’t want to sit in this car forever.
The passenger door opened, surprising